World

Kabul – A suicide bomber dressed in an army uniform yesterday rammed his motorcycle into a fleet of buses carrying Afghan army officers, killing at least nine and wounding 28 near the capital Kabul. It was the bloodiest of several suicide attacks in the Afghan capital since US-led forces overthrew the Taliban in late 2001 and came just 10 days after landmark parliamentary elections.

Washington – Tom DeLay, a political ally of President George Bush, quit as head of the Republican majority in the House of Representatives yesterday after being indicted on a campaign-finance charge. A Texas grand jury charged DeLay and two political associates with converting $190 000 (R1,2-million) in corporate money into individual campaign contributions to avoid campaign-finance restrictions.

Tokyo – Sho Hasegawa, a student at the Tokyo University of Science, wears a Muscle Suit that his lab is developing. The suit is a wearable robot which supports the muscle movements of the elderly or disabled. By controlling air compression, it can help bend and stretch arms, and twist elbows both inward and outward. The suits are on show at the Home Care & Rehabilitation

Exhibition 2005 in Tokyo.

Boston – Six parishes have filed a lawsuit in US federal court against Connecticut’s bishop over his support for the Anglican Church’s first openly gay prelate, an Anglican group said yesterday. The suit marks the latest escalation in tension within the 77-million-member worldwide Anglican Church over the consecration of Bishop Gene Robinson of New Hampshire in 2003.

Berlin – Germany’s eastern population has dropped by 900 000 mostly young people since reunification with the west, as the new states struggle with high unemployment. The Federal Statistics Office shows that between 1991 and 2004 about 2,18-million people left for western Germany, while only 1,28-million moved to the east. Last year 54% of those who moved westwards were aged between 18 and 30.

Waterford, Connecticut – A high-speed Amtrak passenger train yesterday ploughed into a car at a crossing, killing a 61-year-old woman and her 8-year-old grandson and causing major delays along the Boston-to-Washington corridor. The train dragged the car several hundred metres, with the engine coming to rest on top of the demolished vehicle. No train passengers were hurt.

New Delhi – India and Pakistan are planning to start a bus service by November to link two cities situated close to their border as part of an ongoing peace process. The service will connect the Indian city of Amritsar with Lahore in Pakistan. In April, India and Pakistan, which have fought wars over disputed Kashmir, started a bus service across the Himalayan region to Indian Kashmir.

Windhoek – A German-language Namibian weekly is to publish an apology after an advertisement that appeared in its pages celebrating the death of “the big monster” Simon Wiesenthal, hunter of Nazi war criminals. Hans Feddersen of Plus admitted it was “not a good idea” to publish the advert, which drew strong reactions from readers and criticism from the German ambassador in Windhoek.

Vienna – Egypt yesterday proposed the creation of a nuclear-free zone in the Middle East and blasted Israel for standing in the way. The plan was put forward at a meeting in Vienna of the UN atomic watchdog. Israel, believed to be the only state in the region with nuclear weapons, said it was not against such a zone but that there must first be an overall peace agreement in the Middle East.

Tehran – Scores of protesters incensed by EU moves to send Iran’s nuclear case to the UN Security Council hurled stones and smoke bombs over the walls of the British embassy compound in Tehran yesterday. The violence coincided with a vote by lawmakers to speed discussion of a bill that would force the government to scale back its co-operation with the UN atomic watchdog.

Paris – Mayor Bertrand Delanoe yesterday condemned a decision by the city’s metro and bus operator not to allow advertising posters that show a gay couple kissing. “The images, which simply depict a kiss between two members of the same sex, in no way justify this act of censorship,” the mayor – himself homosexual – said. Posters now show images of male and female couples cuddling.